


The Captain's Shirt

by KaCole



Series: Busted [3]
Category: Star Trek: Voyager
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Love Bites, No Spoilers, Romance, Secrets, Story: Isabo's Shirt - Kirsten Beyer, Venice, just a play on words
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-31
Updated: 2018-12-31
Packaged: 2019-10-01 11:50:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,633
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17243732
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KaCole/pseuds/KaCole
Summary: Naomi Wildman doesn't like being held up when she's waiting for her holodeck time. Not only that, she's a little perplexed as to why the captain has left her shirt behind.*With heartfelt apologies to Kirsten Beyer*





	The Captain's Shirt

 

Naomi Wildman stands in front of holodeck two tapping her foot. She's waited all week for her holodeck adventure with Flotter and Trevis, and she's  _ not _ happy that someone has run over their allocated time. It's probably Tom Paris with his silly automobile again. If he thinks he can keep her from complaining by letting her sit in the pilot’s chair this time, then he can think again.

Naomi glances up and down the corridor, and finding it empty, flips open the access panel. Her mother and Neelix don't know she has figured out how to override the holodeck privacy locks, but whoever is in there has clearly lost track of time, so it's only fair to hurry them along a bit. It's her turn now, so hard luck on them. 

As the door slides back she sees the towering spires of a city, and fancy bridges, and hears the swish and slosh of water. A long, narrow boat glides along a canal towards a pier. There are voices, talking softly over the sound of the water. Someone laughs.

Naomi folds her arms. They won’t be laughing for long.

The boat stops and Commander Chakotay steps across to the pier, and turns to offer a hand to… Captain Janeway. Naomi’s heart does a little dance, because the Captain is the person in the whole galaxy she wants most to impress, and she’s pretty sure busting into the holodeck isn't the way to do it. She takes a step backwards, but it's too late, the captain has already seen her.

Naomi straightens her back. “I'm sorry, Captain. I didn’t mean to open the doors.”

“That's quite all right,” the captain says, glancing at Commander Chakotay. “I think we overstayed our slot.”

Naomi peers past the captain and commander, at the domes and buildings under a blue cloudless sky. “Is that Earth?”

Captain Janeway smiles. “Yes it is. A city called Venice. Quite a favourite of mine.”

“It must be very hot,” Naomi says. “Your faces are all red.”

Commander Chakotay coughs. “Now you come to mention it, things did get a bit heated back there.”

The captain gives him a stern look. “You had better check the environmental controls, Commander. Wouldn’t want Naomi here coming down with heat stroke because the temperature regulation is on the fritz.” 

“Of course, Captain.” The commander leaves, which suits Naomi just fine, as a few minutes alone with the captain are a few minutes she has to impress her.

“So, Naomi, what adventure have we been keeping you from?”

Naomi considers for a moment. Flotter and Trevis are fun, but it's hardly the sort of thing a future captain's assistant should be spending her time on. 

She bites her bottom lip. “I'm learning to recognise different kinds neutrino flux patterns. That way, if we ever pass near a wormhole, I’ll be able to spot it for you, Captain.”

The captain looks at her with a strange kind of smile, and crouches beside her. “Your dedication to your duties is noted. But, do you know what? I have it on good authority that even the most dedicated officers need a little fun.” She smiles broadly at Naomi, and lowers her voice. “As I recall, Flotter and Trevis are a lot more fun than neutrino flux patterns.” The captain straightens up. “Carry on, Miss Wildman.” 

Naomi almost hugs the captain, but remembers herself just in time. 

Captain Janeway de-activates the Venice programme. The arches and spires and rivers vanish. “It's all yours. Watch out for the giant beetle!” the captain calls over her shoulder.

Naomi steps inside the holodeck’s black boxes and yellow grid lines. She walks to the centre of the room, and picks up a small grey turtleneck shirt that’s lying there. “It sure must have been hot in here,” she says. She tosses the shirt towards the computer arch. She can give it back to the captain later. “Computer. Resume programme Naomi Wildman, The Enchanted Forest, chapter twenty three.”

#

Kathryn spends her remaining off duty hours going over warp density calculations and reviewing data from the latest long range astrometrical scans. After that, she eats a bowl of soup, drinks coffee, and notes that her body feels wonderfully relaxed and her focus over the past two hours was laser sharp. She can't deny that a little “r&r” does her good. Must be all those endorphins Chakotay keeps telling her about while he whispers sweet nothings in her ear. He's quite the expert on mating behaviours, as it turns out.  

It's not until she’s undressing in front of her mirror that she realises she isn't wearing her turtleneck. Did she forget to put it back on after showering and before heading out to the holodeck? She stretches her neck, and notices to her horror that not only has she lost her shirt, her juvenile first officer has marked her neck with a love bite. “Damn.”

#

Tuvok has just finished a tactical simulation on holodeck two when the captain rounds the corner at an unusual velocity. 

“Captain. Can I be of assistance?”

“As you were, Tuvok. I just thought I'd left…” The captain steps inside the holodeck, and looks around for a moment, before turning back to him. He observes her face shows signs of annoyance, and her uniform is uncharacteristically missing the regulation undershirt. To his slight consternation, she also seems to have a minor contusion on the left side of her neck, right where her pips would usually be.   

She sighs. “It doesn't matter. Good night.”

With that she is gone, leaving Tuvok to ponder the sequence of events. He checks the holodeck logs for the day. The captain and Commander Chakotay accessed the Venice programme a short while after their duty shifts finished at oh two hundred. Then Naomi Wildman ran the Enchanted Forest programme. After that, the holodeck lay empty until he commenced his tactical simulation at eighteen hundred hours. 

Whatever Captain Janeway has lost, logic dictates that Naomi Wildman was the person most likely to have found it. And based on the available evidence, Tuvok is forced to conclude the unnamed item the captain has lost, is her shirt.

#

“What’s this?” Neelix asks Naomi as he tucks her up into bed. 

“Captain Janeway’s shirt.” 

Neelix frowns and picks up the grey turtleneck that is hung over the back of the chair. “And how did you come to have it?”

“The captain and Commander Chakotay were on the holodeck. Must have got pretty hot in there, because she left her shirt behind.” Naomi smiles and cuddles up with her stuffed toy. “I'm going to take it to her tomorrow.” 

Neelix turns the shirt over in his hands. It doesn’t take a genius to deduce how the captain lost her shirt. Neelix shudders at the prospect of young Naomi marching up to the captain with the evidence of an indiscretion in her innocent little hands.

“You know, the captain might prefer it if I take it back to her tonight,” Neelix says.

“Okay,” Naomi says sleepily.

Neelix leaves the Wildman quarters, brain hard at work. How best to return this item of clothing, while sparing the captain’s blushes? He could just pop to her quarters and claim to have found it on the holodeck. But how would he have known it belongs to her? Maybe he should just put it in the replicator to be recycled, and not mention it at all.

He's so deep in thought that he doesn't see Tuvok striding towards him. 

“Mr Neelix. Do you plan to start wearing a Starfleet uniform?”

“What? No! Of course not.”

“Then what are you doing with that shirt?”

“Well, you see, that's a funny story…”

“Does it involve Naomi Wildman and Captain Janeway?”

Neelix squints at Tuvok. “As a matter of fact, it does.”

“I see. I shall arrange for this item of apparel to be returned to its owner.” Tuvok takes hold of the shirt.

Neelix is reluctant to let the turtleneck go, and grips on to it. “Oh. How are you going to do that?”

“Privately,” says Tuvok, and firmly pulls the garment from Neelix’s hands.

#

Inside Kathryn’s wardrobe, a grey turtleneck undershirt appears neatly on a coat hanger, transported there, discreetly, by a friend.

#

The next morning, Kathryn opens her wardrobe to grab her uniform before remembering she needs to replicate a new undershirt. But there it is: a grey turtleneck. She stares at it. Maybe she  _ did _ forget to put it back on after her shower yesterday. Even as she contemplates this, she feels  _ Voyager _ drop out of warp. 

Her comms activate. “Chakotay to Captain Janeway.”

“Go ahead, Commander.”

“You're needed on the bridge. We've met the Arkonian trade delegation a few hours earlier than scheduled. They've made some additional requests.”

Kathryn dons her uniform and puts thoughts of her misplaced shirt aside. 

 

It's much later in the day when Kathryn finds a quiet moment to speak to Chakotay in her ready room. She pulls at her collar and rubs her neck, all too aware of the livid mark he left there. 

“Did I leave my shirt on the holodeck yesterday?” she says very quietly, even though they are alone.

He squints at her. “I'm not sure. We did get dressed in a hurry.”

She grimaces. “I wasn't wearing it when I got back. Yet this morning there it was in my wardrobe.” Kathryn frowns at the possibilities. “What if someone found it?”

Chakotay chuckles. “And secretly put it back in your wardrobe? Seems a bit unlikely.” He steps closer, eases her collar away from her neck and kisses her right on the spot he marked yesterday. He rumbles, in a low, predatory growl that sets her heart racing, “I’m the only one getting his hands on the captain’s shirt.”

**Author's Note:**

> comments, kudos and feedback are always welcome X


End file.
